Kaufmann Kohler, Ph.D.

Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Beth-El, New York; President of the Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, Ohio.

TEḤINA, ABBA –
A leader of the Zealots. Together with Eleazar Ben Dinai, he is mentioned in the remarkable dictum of Johanan ben Zakkai concerning the Zealots: "Since the murderers have increased, the expiation ceremony of the 'eglah 'arufah...

TESTAMENTS OF THE TWELVE PATRIARCHS –
Title of twelve connected documents which purport to record the last words and exhortations of the twelve sons of Jacob. They also bear in several of the manuscripts subtitles indicating the virtues inculcated or the vices...

THEOCRACY –
Derived from Josephus. System of state organization and government in which God is recognized as the ruler in whose name authority is exercised by His chosen agents, the Priests or the Prophets. The word in its technical meaning...

THEOLOGY –
The science that treats of God and of His relation to the world in general and to man in particular; in a less restricted sense, the didactic representation of the contents and essence of a religion. Jewish theology, therefore,...

THEOPHANY –
Manifestation of a god to man; the sensible sign by which the presence of a divinity is revealed. If the word is taken in this sense, and the passages which merely mention the fact of a revelation without describing it are...

THERAPEUTÆ –
Depicted by Philo. A community of Jewish ascetics settled on Lake Mareotis in the vicinity of Alexandria at the time of Philo, who alone, in his work "De Vita Contemplativa," has preserved a record of their existence. The fact...

TISHBI, JUDAH BEN ELIJAH –
Karaite scholar and liturgical poet; flourished at Belgrade in the first half of the sixteenth century; grandson of Abraham ben Judah. He copied and completed the exegetical work of his grandfather, entitled "Yesod Miḳra," and...

TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS –
Doctrine Refuted by Saadia. The passing of souls into successive bodily forms, either human or animal. According to Pythagoras, who probably learned the doctrine in Egypt, the rational mind (ψρήν), after having been freed from...

TRINITY –
The fundamental dogma of Christianity; the concept of the union in one God of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three infinite persons. It was the Nicene Council and even more especially the Athanasian Creed that first gave the...

UNITARIANISM –
A denomination of the Christian Church which rejects the doctrine of the Trinity. One of the Protestant sects that developed out of the Reformation, it is found under various names, first in Poland in the second half of the...

WISDOM –
Practical intelligence; the mental grasp which observes and penetrates into the nature of things, and also the ability skilfully to perform difficult tasks. The former faculty is intuitive, the latter creative. Hence the word...

WISDOM OF SOLOMON, BOOK OF THE –
Apocryphal book written in Alexandria about the middle of the first century B.C. That it was composed in Greek by an Alexandrian Jew has been conclusively shown by Freudenthal ("J. Q. R." iii. 722-753). The book has neither an...

WORSHIP, IDOL- –
Historical Outlines. All idolatrous cults are condemned by the Biblical insistence on worship of Yhwh only. The Decalogue begins with the command to reverence the one true God and to recognize no other deities. On this theme the...

YEẒIRAH, SEFER –
The Power of the Name. The title of two esoteric books. Of these the older is also called "Hilkot Yeẓirah" (Rules of Creation), and is a thaumaturgical work that was popular in the Talmudic period. "On the eve of every Sabbath,...

YEẒIRAH, SEFER –
The Power of the Name. The title of two esoteric books. Of these the older is also called "Hilkot Yeẓirah" (Rules of Creation), and is a thaumaturgical work that was popular in the Talmudic period. "On the eve of every Sabbath,...

ZARZA, SAMUEL IBN SENEH –
Spanish philosopher; lived at Valencia in the second half of the fourteenth century. According to Zunz, his surname is derived from the Spanish town Zarza (= "thorn-bush"), and is accordingly synonymous with the Hebrew "seneh."...

ZEALOTS –
Zealous defenders of the Law and of the national life of the Jewish people; name of a party opposing with relentless rigor any attempt to bring Judea under the dominion of idolatrous Rome, and especially of the aggressive and...

ZECHARIAH BEN ABḲILUS (Amphikalos) –
Palestinian scholar and one of the leaders of the Zealots; lived in Jerusalem at the time of the destruction of the Second Temple. According to the Talmud, the authority which he enjoyed among the rabbis of Jerusalem was the...

ZOROASTRIANISM –
The religion of ancient Persia as founded by Zoroaster; one of the world's great faiths that bears the closest resemblance to Judaism and Christianity. According to the tradition in the Parsee books, Zoroaster was born in 660...